Chetopa, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chetopa, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Chetopa lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Chetopa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chetopa — the short answer
Chetopa, Kansas: USDA zone 7a, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 873 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 873 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is Chetopa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chetopa's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chetopa
Each reading below is measured for Chetopa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChetopa runs about 228 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredChetopa sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Chetopa is in
Chetopa sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Chetopa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Labette County.
What Grows in Chetopa
Every plant below cleared Chetopa's own zone 7a and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chetopa?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Chetopa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chetopa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SUNSHINE CHETOPAUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- FORMER AMOCO/SINCLAIR #16287Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- DAVIS SALES & SVCBrownfields · 850 ft
- CHETOPA, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- USD 505 CHETOPA SCHOOLSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- PATTERSON OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CARM N DALE'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SPINNERS TIRE & LUBE, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BAILEY'S CORNER - 5837Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- RIVERSIDE SPORTING GOODS, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ROBS AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- FRONTIER CHARCOAL DIV. OF PACKAGING SERVICE CO. INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chetopa's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Chetopa.
Total Sites
79
within ~10 miles of Chetopa
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chetopa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chetopa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chetopa, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Chetopa — Mining (14 sites) and Nitrate (30 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Chetopa
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chetopa average
Your land is one point inside Chetopa
Everything above resolves to Chetopa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 873 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Chetopa Average
Chetopa Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Chetopa
- ●One soil character for all of Chetopa
- ●Frost dates read at Chetopa's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chetopa's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chetopa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chetopa, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chetopa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chetopa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chetopa average
How we know this about Chetopa
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Chetopa’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Chetopa
When does frost risk typically end in Chetopa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chetopa typically lands around Mar 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 16.
When is the first frost in Chetopa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chetopa typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chetopa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chetopa sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 26, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chetopa?
The federal record around Chetopa runs heavier than most — 79 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (30), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Chetopa?
From about Oct 10 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chetopa's scale — its 7a band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chetopa's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Chetopa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chetopa's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 873 acres it covers and 79 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chetopa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chetopa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 9 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 79 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chetopa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chetopa's boundary and the 873 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chetopa's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chetopa's 873 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Labette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Labette County
- The growing challenges every Kansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kansas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Labette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chetopa's 873 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chetopa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 873 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Chetopa-wide figureread your own land →